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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Foolish Wise Man

contributed by:

Ron Klopfenstein

Men's:Life Director

Last weekend Tyler Ward took us through the story of Solomon and an amazing story it is. Here is a man who is granted his request of God for great wisdom yet whose life is marked by times of great foolishness.

What is wisdom after all? It is really the ability to apply what you know to be true. This is where Solomon faltered. Before we are too hard on him, let us remind ourselves that very often we act the same way. Certainly there are times when we don’t know what the right course of action is, but there are many times when we simply don’t want to do what we know is right. So how do we both gain wisdom and apply it.

God has provided us with wisdom through his Word – the source of absolute truth; through his Spirit - that guides us and speaks to us; through the counsel of other people – who can help provide us with perspective. What we need to do is trust the wisdom that God provides us, even if it does not make total sense to us. We are confronted with so much “noise” in our life that too often the real problem is that we cannot hear God speak to us. Over and over again, scripture tells us to “be still”. God speaks to us in the stillness when we focus and meditate on Him.

Another trap many of us fall in to when asking God for wisdom is that we really aren’t asking for wisdom as much as affirmation of a course of action we have already decided we want to take. We have become experts in rationalizing behaviors that match up with our selfish desires.

Sometimes, the first step in application is asking God for the desire to do what He tells us to. As I heard a preacher say once “You gotta have a want to”. God is not only faithful to provide us with wisdom and knowledge he is able to provide us with that want to. The battle is often with our will and praise God, He is able to transform our will to line up with his.

So, where do you need to start today? Do you need to carve out some time to be still before God; to seek out the truths of His Word? Do you need to simply start by asking God to give you the desire to apply truth that you already know?